I write what I like.

Archive for the tag “Kanugu”

Well, the spokesman of the party is strongly saying the party will be more united now then ever after this Internal Election. Surely when they all or so many has rigged themselves there. Surely they can all discuss the value of pre-ticket ballots and stuffed ballot boxes in the polling stations. That must be something that is discussed in the four day conference at Kololo right?

Just think of Opondo are talking to Odoi: “How can we do it even better in the 2016? The media and this social media people have spread our malfunctions to the world and this moles are tearing us apart! We got to do something!”

Well, that is made up, but you get the point right, and what worth has it to have politicians when none of them lives by the old saying: “Taxation without representation”. But now, do yourself a favor an take a look at this wonderful masterpiece called the aftermath of the NRM Primaries and some of the reports I have gotten today!

Ofwono Opondo said today: “NRM is going to be more united then ever”.

Abletong:

“Owino has said Wednesday’s NRM primary elections were marred by massive vote rigging and intimidation orchestrated by armed forces. Mr Owino, who described the deployment of armed forces as “nonsense,” alleged that the army engaged in intimidating people, especially supporters of Ms Otengo’s rival, Mr Samuel Okwir” (…)“When time came for collecting polling materials and results, the police and the soldiers did not allow us to go to the polling stations. Soldiers were using the vehicles belonging to the District Internal Security Officer, OC station and that of the town council,” Mr Owino told Daily Monitor” (…)”The district party registrar, Mr Isaac Odyang, said the election was free and fair though he acknowledged there were few soldiers and police deployed about 100 metres from the tallying centre” (Oketech, 2015).

Amudat:

Reports from the area is that NRM members has burned the cards in the area up to a thousand member cards been put into the fire. A NRM member in the area said this: “There was no free and fair election in Amudat. What was in Amudat was National Rigging Movement,”

Arua:“I take the opportunity to thank friends, relatives, family, supporters and the entire Arua community for standing firm with me during NRM Primaries. Though we didn’t make it, we thank God for taking as through the exercise. Not all hope is lost and I still remain hopeful for 2021. I congratulate Hon Abiriga Ibrahim for making it” (Brian Godfrey Obiga).

Buduma South:

Hon. Oboth Oboth is planning court actions after the conduct of the primaries in the district, which he lost. He claims that it was extensive rigging.

Buduma North:

Hon. Fox Odoi alleged rigged for one of the candidates and one of the contestants of the petition has already had it dismissed.

Bujenje County:

Princess Kabakumba Masiko lost her place rumored that she will now join Go-Forward.

Bufumbira East – Kisoro District:

Eddie Kwizera who lost to James Nsaba Buturo, he plans to either join the FDC or Go-Forward.

Kabale:

Fred Ruhakana said this: “I have today quit the NRM. The Primaries were highly rigged in favor of the incumbent”.

Kanugu:

“Those who lost in recent NRM elections have rejected results that were announced on one of the radio stations in Kanungu district saying that announcement was unfound. Those who are against the recent release include James Kaberuka, Ahimbisibwe Gad Rugaju,Josephine Kasya, Muhumuza Frugency and Elizabeth Karungi. They claim that there was no transparency in tallying process, tallying of votes in Kinkiizi west was not done and selective harassment of agents by police”

“Brothers and sisters, lam petitioning NRM EC to repeat the exercise of holding NRM party primaries in Kyaddondo South. If not, l am declaring that l will stand on an independent ticket” (Ahmed Musaazi, 2015).

Katakwi District:

Jessica Alupo (Now Minister of Education and Sports) who lost her place in the Primaries are going to run as an independent this coming election.

Kibaale:

“Police fired tear gas at National Resistance Movement party supporters in Kisiita sub-county, Kibaale district who were protesting results of the recent primaries” (Tumusiime, 2015).

Kitgum:

“An aspirant for Kitgum Woman MP NRM flag bearer, Ms Jane Achiro Opio, has said she will petition the party’s electoral commission, calling for fresh elections after her name was not printed as number one on the ballot paper as she had guided her supporters” (…)”Ms Achiro castigated the district NRM officials for allowing the elections to continue despite realising that Ms Achan’s name had been erroneously entered on the ballots for Kitgum Woman MP election” (…)”“I had told all my voters to tick the first aspirant on the ballot paper because all the names of aspirants are arranged in alphabetical order,” she said.

Omara Odung the Mayor of the town lost in the Primaries to his now councilor. Mawa says: “votes from tally center of railway where he comes from not counted”. The now former mayor says now he will go into the polls in 2016 as an independent.

Mbarara: Mayor Aspirant of Etaara!

“That is the first promise that Mugabe Robert Kakyebezi made to the town dwellers, once elected the next mayor of the soon to become city; that he would restore the largely defunct street lights” (…)”Kacebezi took advantage of the slanderous language of the incumbent Wilson Tumwiine which turned a lot of support away from him” (…)”He also ridiculed some of his contenders saying that they owned no single building in the town and thus were not fit to be elected mayor” (UGBlizz, 2015).

One of the ones who lost in Mbarara Municipality Dr. Medard Bitekyerezo who describes himself: “There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers”. He says that after losing he will run as an independent.

Mbale Muncipality:

Umar Nangoli lost to John Weekesa Wabongo, who now threatens to join Go-Forward if justice doesn’t prevail.

Mukono South:

Rev. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa lost and is saying that he will go independent.

Nambole:

“Money-Man, Tycoon, Kingmaker Hajji Hassan Basajabalaba has lost the NRM National Entrepreneurs League Chair to Rukaari. He will no longer sit on the NRM’s prized top decision making organ the CEC. He was defeated with a margin of 53 votes after he polled 230 as his ‘tormentor, Rukaari polled 283 votes”.

Rwampara Country:

Vincent Kyamadidi has claimed that there was no place to tick him off on the ballot-papers and as a result of this he will go as independent candidate in the district this coming election.

Okoro County – Zombo District:

Stanley Omwonya rigged the elections so diligently that out of the four sub-counties, he only won the one which is his home and he still won the election for the new constituency that was made and called Oraa out of Okoro.

Tororo West:

Sarah Opendi will run as independent.

Journalist shot during the Primaires:

“Enoch Matovu, a correspondent for a local television, NTV, in Mityana District was reportedly shot on the head while covering an incident of vote rigging during the NRM party elections at Bulera police station in Mityana district. He sustained a bullet injury on his head” (…)”Matovu told HRNJ-Uganda that he was covering the incident and never saw who shot at him in the scuffle, “I saw the local people opening the car and removing the ballot papers which they scattered around the police station, and that’s when I stopped understanding. I later discovered that I was admitted in Mityana Hospital.” Matovu narrated. Two unidentified men have so far been arrested and detained at Mityana police station, according to police” (…)”The scuffle ensued when an unidentified man turned up at a polling station near the police with ballot papers and could not ably explain where he got them. The local people became hostile and wanted to lynch him but he managed to escape and hid inside the police station. His car was broken into and the ballot papers scattered by the angry locals. Matovu is still undergoing treatment” (HRNJ-Uganda, 2015).

The President speaks a NRM Conference in Kololo Grounds in Kampala:

“NRM always follows the truth. All the problems we have had in the party primaries is because people are not following those principles. That is why you find people hiding ballot papers to vote more than once.That is why some people interfere with the register” (…)””Why should people steal votes when you are there. You should not allow it. Why should you beat a fellow Ugandan?” (…)”The NRM secretariat died when it was under my young brother Mbabazi. The NRM garden had grown weeds” (…)”A member of NRM can ask, what will I benefit? Then you tell him what about peace, free education for the children, roads? And he says even FDC members benefit in that. UPC used to give their leaders sugar and left out others and that is why they are no longer in power” (Mulondo, 2015).

Sideline story:

The Same day one of the men behind the book called ’99 Reasons why Museveni Must Go’ who released the book on Friday (30.10.2015) at the American Embassy was shortly after that detained by the police. The man I am speaking of was the gentleman of Muhamed Ssegirinya.

I know I have read and written so much on this NRM Primaries, that is because its sadly very entertaining and also the issues continues to pile up together with massive reports. Now we are getting a sour loser who knows that these elections are rigging parties, pre-ticket ballots or written wrong on the ballot-papers. The tale of the NRM Primaries of 2015 is in the name of Kenyan Ballot-Papers.

If they are more united after this then there more united in the way of rigging themselves into power and not giving in to the people, and letting the people find the ones they want to represent themselves. So with the NRM-Regime they will continue to live in the sense of Anti Taxation-with-representation, because that is something Museveni fears with a passion it seems. Peace.

Elections for LCIII chairpersons/councilors and district councilors for Bushenyi and Kanungu Districts will take place at date to be agreed on after meeting elders and stakeholders of the two districts on the 15th and 16th for Bushenyi and Kanungu respectively. Elections for Kyeizoba NRM 111 will take place on Saturday October 17.

At the same media briefing, it was announced that the first meeting of the third national conference will take place between October 30-Nov 2nd at Namboole.

“Nomination of the NRM presidential candidate H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will take place on November 3.” Thereafter the President will address a post-nomination public rally at Kololo.

Nantabulirwa yasabala na bwabbumba: Whatever a man sows that is what he will reap.

Uganda started off her Independence, in 1962, on a very weak foundation. This was, mainly, because of bad politics pushed by opportunistic sectarian groups and manipulated by external interests. The sectarianism, as we have pointed out many times, was based on religion, tribes and gender chauvinism (marginalizing the women). There were only three women that I remember in the Independence Parliament of 1962 to take one example. Within four years of Independence, the then Prime Minister had to abolish the 1962 Constitution because of the contradictions that were getting ever sharper. Earlier on, there had been the conflict on the “lost counties” of Bunyoro.

A lot of blood was shed in the 1966 crisis, resulting in the abolition of the Kingdoms. Eventually, Amin made a coup detat in 1971 and more sectarianism was generated and much more blood was shed between 1971 and 1979.

The late Mwalimu Nyerere, writing about Uganda, said of that period as follows: “If the Ugandans thought they were on the frying pan under Obote, they found themselves in the fire proper under Amin”. That was the perfect description of that time.

Some of us have the advantage of having been old enough to know and understand everything that was going on and yet we were young enough to live for long after 1962 as we have done. Initially, we, as youth, belonged to those sectarian parties ─ I being in Democratic Party (DP) and some of my colleagues being in Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) and Kabaka Yeka (KY). However, by 1965, we had started developing grave doubts about the direction of that blind, irresponsible, opportunistic sectarian politics. As students, that is how we founded the nucleus of the third force ─ a non-sectarian student body. That student Movement, during Amin’s time, metamorphosed into FRONASA that was part of the coalition that fought Idi Amin and, eventually, evolved into NRM. Right from the beginning, we opposed and despised sectarianism because it was illogical and, obviously, run counter to the interests of the people. As we have said, repeatedly, the core interests of the people are prosperity and security for each individual family and for the entire society. When we talk of prosperity and security, we mean prosperity through production, not through parasitism. When we talk of security, we mean security in pursuing one’s legitimate interests. Legitimate interests mean working, utilizing our legitimately earned assets and enjoying the fruits of your labour.

There are, of course, other interests such as cultural, spiritual, etc. However, the core ones and on which all the other interests depend, are prosperity (especially economic) and security of person and property. Prosperity through production means producing and selling what you produce. Your allies in that battle are the people who buy what you produce. The recent insecurity in South Sudan showed the importance to producers of markets. Many businesses suffered. The prices even went down. The insecurity in Eastern Congo or Kenya usually has similar effects on the producers’ prosperity. Recently, I was in Kanungu and found there prospering farmers because there is now, again, some security in Eastern Congo. Even before colonization, there was interdependence among the tribes ─ as far as the forest of Congo, South Sudan and the East African Coast. It was only some of the tribal chiefs that were inconveniencing this trade as was observed and recorded by the early European travelers ─ John Speke and Henry Stanley.

Therefore, those who have been in the habit of pushing for sectarianism are the real enemies of not only security but also the prosperity of the African Peoples, the Ugandans inclusive. It is this firm belief of ours that propelled us to sow the mustard seed of non-sectarianism that, eventually, became the mighty tree of NRM/NRA and the present peace in the whole country. It was on account of our non-sectarianism and always working for the unity of the people that, starting with a small force, we were able to build a very powerful force. That force enabled us to win all the wars we fought, bring democracy to Uganda as well as peace and development. In bringing democracy, we also restored the rights of the different cultural groups in Uganda, if they so wished, to restore the traditional cultural institutions or even create new ones on condition that they did not meddle in partisan politics, administration and legislation. Why did we insist on this? It was for two reasons. First, in a democracy, the population govern themselves ─ through elections. They are not governed by anybody else except themselves. Yet, when you hear some of the spokesmen of the cultural institutions that we restored speaking, they speak as if it is not the people that govern themselves. Worse still, some of the cultural institutions have, for some time now, been acting counter to our message of non-sectarianism. They have been actively fomenting sectarianism and tribal chauvinism ─ acting and talking as if the only thing that matters are certain tribes to which the respective traditional leaders belong. Yet, the NRM, the Bible and the Koran as well as common sense hold that all people are born equal and must be treated as such. We have repeatedly and politely pointed out this point. Yet, some elements among the cultural institutions have also been repeatedly uttering sectarian and chauvinist words and also acting in that manner.

This now brings me to my two statements above ─ the Luganda proverb that says: “Nantabulirwa yasabaala na bwa bbumba” and the Biblical statement that “whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap”. The Luganda proverb refers to somebody who defied all the advice and decided to use a clay canoe to cross a body of water. The consequences were disastrous for him and for those who travelled with him in the clay boat.

Last Sunday, a group of people in the Rwenzori region carried out coordinated attacks against security forces and civilians. Altogether, they carried out 13 attacks as follows:
(i) At 3.00 pm, they attacked policemen at the weigh bridge, killed 1 policeman, injured another one and took 2 SMGs;
(ii) At Bigando, a UPDF soldier that was on leave, was killed and all his family burnt in a house;
(iii) In Bigando, they also killed 6 Basongora civilians;
(iv) At Karugutu Police post, they injured one (1) policeman and took one (1) SMG
(v) At Kikyo Police post, they took one SMG;
(vi) At Kirumiya Police post, they took 1 gun;
(vii) At Ntandi they took 2 SMGs from Uganda Wild Life (UWA) personnel;
(viii) At Kibuku, they ambushed soldiers who were taking re-enforcements to Bundibugyo, killed one of them, and took 1 SMG but 3 of the attackers were killed including their so called commander;
(ix) In Bundibugyo town, they attacked Bundibugyo Police Station, killed the OC station and one policeman and took one SMG;
(x) They attacked Stanbic Bank but three of the attackers were killed;
(xi) They, then, attacked, Lakwena style, the camp of 39BN at Kanyamirima, injuring one Captain and killing one soldier but 45 of the attackers were killed and the attack was repelled;
(xii) Attack on the Palace of the Bamba King saw one gun being taken and one policeman being injured; and, finally,
(xiii) The attack on the shrine where 2 soldiers were killed and one gun was taken.

This means that 8 members of the security forces were killed and 51 attackers were also killed. This is a total of 65 Ugandans killed last Saturday by the schemes of some confused or selfish bunch of people. Fortunately, today Uganda has got a capable State that is able to deal decisively and expeditiously with such schemes although, of course, there was a failure of intelligence. How did these people weave such a scheme without being pre-empted? What were the GISOs doing? However, their main effort, which was to enter the camp of 39BN was decisively defeated. In their limited thinking, they thought it was a light matter to attack UPDF.

How did all this start? It started with Mr. Charles Mumbere, now HH Omusinga of the Bakonjo, coming to see me some years ago. He is the son of the late Isaiah Mukirane who, together with Kawamara, the father of the new cultural leader of the Bamba and Mupalya who died recently, started the Rwenzururu Movement in 1962 against the Batooro domination. Mukirane, eventually, died in the mountains and left his young son Mumbere. When Mr. Mumbere came to see me, he wanted to be the King of the Rwenzururu. I told him that the Rwenzururu had been a Political Movement for equality. Why did he want to turn a political resistance movement into a monarchy? His group, however, kept on insisting on the issue of monarchy although there was a big group in Kasese that also opposed the idea. Eventually, in order to create harmony, we withdrew objections to Mr. Mumbere becoming Omusinga especially after people like Dr. Kiyonga and a large group of people who were opposed to the idea of monarchy, withdrew their objection. However, the Bamba leaders of Bundibugyo were totally opposed to the idea of the monarchy.

In agreeing to Mr. Mumbere being Omusinga, we, therefore, agreed that that cultural institution should operate in Kasese. Those of Bundibugyo and other areas that were interested in the Obusinga could go to Kasese. Even within Kasese, there are other indigenous groups that did not support these ideas. These are the Basongora, Banyabindi and Bagabo. We encouraged HH Omusinga to have dialogue with these groups. I do not know how far that dialogue has gone. I have, however, been hearing of some chauvinistic positions from some of those who claim to be supporting Obusinga. They seem to insist that the Omusinga, apart from the Omukama of Tooro in his area, should be the only cultural leader in the Rwenzori region. Yet, there are other ethnic groups in the Rwenzori region:Bamba, Basongora, Banyabindi, etc. They have different ideas about this issue and have, in several meetings with me, made this categorically clear.

On account of those chauvinistic ideas being banded around for so long, it seems some groups hatched this criminal scheme that has caused the death of so many people. Apart from killing 51 of the attackers, we have captured 65 others. We shall get to the truth and will punish those involved. In the meantime, the country should not get anxious about this scheme. It was defeated right on the first day of its execution even before the full potential of the UPDF has been mobilized. This scheme is doomed to total failure. It is amazing how wrong ideas coalesce into wrong actions. Nantabulirwa ya sabaala na bwa bbumba.Whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap.